Photogs Complain About Leo's Guards, Girlfriend's Dad

Although Leonardo DiCaprio has since departed Israel, his memory lingers. Especially over at the police station. 

Officers said Thursday that they're still deciding whether to file charges against the two bodyguards who allegedly roughed up several members of the paparazzi who were on hand Monday when DiCaprio toured the Western Wall with his girlfriend, model Bar Refaeli, and her family. 

About 20 photographers were waiting for the group as they emerged from one of the Western Wall's adjacent subterranean tunnels. A spokesman for DiCaprio told E! Online that a security team was on hand to assure a safe passage for the high-profile couple from the holy site to their waiting van.  

After DiCaprio and Rafaeli had been ferried away, the two bodyguards still at the scene "literally started hitting and punching the photographers," shutterbug Orel Cohen, who works for the Flash 90 photo agency in Ma'ariv, told the Jerusalem Post.  

Of course, the photographers were also swarming around the van like flies at the time, per some grainy video shot at the scene that has since surfaced on the Internet. 

The police were called and seven of the photogs, three of whom were injured, went to the police station to enter complaints. Officers picked up the guards for questioning and released them a short time later. 

Cohen has also filed a complaint against Refaeli's father, Rafi, saying the elder man twisted her finger and pushed her as she was trying to snap a pic of his daughter and her Oscar-nominated boy toy, causing Cohen to fall down and break her equipment.  

"I have never seen such a brutal, savage security team, which was incited by Refaeli's father and acted like we were the guests and not the other way around," Cohen said.  

"None of us are paparazzi photographers," the Flash 90 empoyee added. "We take photos of celebrities at the Western Wall all the time. This is a public and open site. We didn't ambush them near their home or in a café. There is a big difference. Unlike paparazzi photographers, none of us make extra money from these kind of pictures. It's regular news coverage, which in this case lasted longer than we all expected or wanted." 

"We understand it was the photographers who were attacked," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said Thursday. "The photographers didn't attack the security guards. It's very clear it was an unnecessary incident." 

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Rubi said that the bodyguards have filed complaints against the photographers, as well. "We are checking the photos and videotapes that were shot there and we are investigating the complaints," he said. 

Udi Bar-Shavit, one of the men questioned and the owner of a security company in Tel Aviv, told the Associated Press that his men showed restraint. 

"The photographers were so intent on getting the picture that all means were legitimate for them," Bar-Shavit said. 

Despite the renewed focus on DiCaprio's security detail, Israeli police still took the paparazzi's tendency to be overzealous into consideration. A 30-day restraining order was issued against seven of the more avid lensmen who were on the scene Monday, prohibiting them from approaching the actor and Refaeli for the rest of their trip.  

A spokesman for the Western Wall, which is also known as the Wailing Wall and is one of Judaism's most sacred prayer sites, told the Post that the entrance to the tunnels was not closed off to photographers because of its famous visitors, but rather because of structural dangers.  

The spokesman also said that DiCaprio refused to be photographed for the Western Wall's Website, which features pictures of past celebrity tourists who were a little less camera-shy.